Immediate Feelings and Remembered Feelings Presented in “Surprised by Joy”

726 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: William Wordsworth's use of language

William Wordsworth was considered one of the two poets who started the Romantic Era. His view on poetry was that it should be able to be understood by the common man, as well as the educated. Wordsworth’s “marriage of feeling and thought” (Elements of Literature) is one of the reasons his poetry is not only widely understood, but also made him arguably “the best poet of the age”, as Coleridge would say. This “marriage” is clearly seen in Wordsworth’s “Surprised by Joy” by the use of meter, rhyme, sound, and punctuation. This poem shows that the human emotions are shown by not only the immediate feelings of a human, but also the remembered feelings, which intensifies the marriage of feelings and thought.
Wordsworth use of iambic pentameter throughout his poem makes the poem seem more natural and more easily understood by everyone; which corresponds with his idea that poetry should be enjoyed by everyone. This idea is reinforced with all of the lines of the poem being ten to twelve syllables, which again is a more natural feeling because this is usually how many syllables are said in one breath. Making this poem more attainable by everybody helps to show that these mixed feelings on the death of a loved one are natural and can be shared by everyone.
The rhyme scheme that Wordsworth used in the first eight lines of the poems is an internal rhyme. The first part of the poem is primarily just showing readers how Wordsworth is feeling. It is focused on what is on the inside of Wordsworth but doesn’t explain it much to the reader. (Rumens) Then the last part of the poem is an “ababab” rhyme which leads into Wordsworth explaining what he was feeling in the first part of the poem. This switch is rhyming techniques helps readers to bet...

... middle of paper ...

...Cited

Rumens, Carol. "Poem of the week: Surprised by joy- impatient as the wind." Books Blog. the Guardian, 22 09 2008. Web. 7 Apr. 2014. .
Tan, Inez. "Surprised: Wordsworth on the coexistence of joy and sorrow." A Journal of Christian Discourse. The Williams Telos, n. d. Web. 7 Apr. 2014. . unknown, . "poetry project." N.p., n. d. Web. 7 Apr. 2014. .
Starns, Jeff. The Relation of Thought and Emotion in "surprised by Joy". Diss. Southeastern, Print. .
Elements of Literature. "William Wordsworth." Elements of Literature: Sixth Course : Literature of Britain World Classics. 6. 1997.

Show More
Related

  • Lanston hughes comparison of two poems

    825 Words  | 2 Pages

    In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”

    Read More

  • Wordsworth's Emotions In The Raven By Edgar Allan Poe

    497 Words  | 1 Pages

    Furthermore, Wordsworth’s assertion of feelings as the effects of an action or a situation, which means that actions should influence the emotions of the character and not the other way around, is dissimilar to The Raven’s character’s feeling of desperation in which he succumbed to his distress. However, the lesson derived from the bizarre workings of the human mind in preferring more devotion to the pain for the sake of “preserving the memory,” as “The Raven” illustrates, exposes to us how a particular person behaves towards grief. The statement thus proves in relation to Coleridge’s statement of the readers’ elicitation of the poem is more significant than the poem itself (in reference to his emphasis on the importance of the “Return”). Another variation between Wordsworth and Coleridge is that the former claims that the writer must bring the language near to the language of men, whilst the latter believes that the language of poetry should beautiful and elevated. “The Raven” in this case

    Read More

  • Racism In 'I Not Racist But' By Anita Heiss

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    ,“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity" as William Wordsworth, the English Romantic poet, stated. Poetry is a way to express vast emotions and feelings in a way which is unique to the poet. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses.

    Read More

  • Comparison of Two Poems: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud & The Preservation of Flowers. Gerard Crosbie

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    The structure and form of both poems is evidently dissimilar. Wordsworth’s lyric contains four stanzas of six lines each, and follows a clear rhyme scheme: ABABCC; meaning that in each stanza, the first line rhymes with the third, the second with the fourth and the stanza concludes with a rhyming couplet. Bird’s sixteen line narrative verse doesn't follow any formal rhyme scheme. She describes full rhyme as being “too strident” for her personal taste. Choosing instead: to use consonance and near rhymes. Despite this seemingly unconventional style with which the poem is written, it does follow an iambic pentameter, with every line containing five stressed syllables-

    Read More

  • William Wordsworth

    1952 Words  | 4 Pages

    1. Andrews, H.. "William Wordsworth." Academy of american poets. Academy of American Poets, 2011. Web. 27 Feb 2012. .

    Read More

  • The Emotion, Imagination and Complexity of Wordsworth and Coleridge

    2326 Words  | 5 Pages

    Wordsworth wrote a preface to Lyrical Ballads in which he puts forth his ideas about poetry. His conception of poetry hinges on three major premises. Wordsworth asserts that poetry is the language of the common man:

    Read More

  • Analysis of Wordsworth’s Surprised by Joy

    1879 Words  | 4 Pages

    The first quatrain opens with Wordsworth's moment of joy and his eagerness to share the experience with his daughter. The abruptness of the phrase, "[s]urprised by joy," and the very word "surprised" -- which is onomatopoetic in that it starts with soft s and ur sounds, explodes into the plosive p and long i sounds and is quickly stifled by the ed sound -- mimics the unexpected, short lived occurrence of joy (1). The caesura following this phrase chops the flow of words, showing the haste of his thoughts as he continues, "impatient and the Wind / I turned to share the transport" (1,2). The slight enjambment after "Wind" suggests the image of wind as a pushing force and created s sort of turning sensation into the next line....

    Read More

  • Felicia Hemans and Jane Taylor

    1083 Words  | 3 Pages

    In order to define romantic poetry on must look towards Bronte and Hemans male contemporaries at the time since their works influenced many other writers of that time. William Wordsworth and Coleridge both wrote criticisms on what made a good poet and what factors made up good poetry. In Biographia Literaria, Coleridge defines the poet and poetry. He sees a "distinction from the poetic genius itself which sustains and modifies images of the own mind " (Coleridge). He believes in the power of exciting of the reader by using new "colours of imagination " to adhere to the truth of nature. In the Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth describes the principal object of poetry to make the incidents of common life interesting by tracing our nature. He wanted to use "the beautiful forms of nature" to write simplistically so that many could understand it. He attributes great poetry to a certain type of person: "For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; but though this be true, Poems to which any value can be attached, were never produced on any variety of subjects but a man who being possessed of more than usual organic sensibility had also thought...

    Read More

  • Nature

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    A noticeable syntactical feature present in Wordsworth’s poem is inversion. Focus is drawn to line five when Wordsworth says, “Still glides the Stream,” because the word order is inverted from the rest of the stanzas (5). In this case the nominative comes first then the predicate when usually the predicate comes first followed by the nominative. This inversion places more attention on the river—the subject of the entire poem and series of sonnets. The inversion of this line also allows the word “still” to have two meanings (5). It can literally represent that the river is “still” in mo...

    Read More

  • Romantic Era Poetry by Wordsworth

    655 Words  | 2 Pages

    In summation, when considering poetry looking at the complexities of it and considering their worth is imperative. “The World Is Too Much with Us” and “It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” are both wonderful poems with deep, wonderful meanings and are sprinkled with literary devices that add depth and understanding to them. The poems of Wordsworth are beautiful sonnets that embody the Romantic era of poetry completely.

    Read More

  • The World Is Too Much With Us By William Wordsworth

    1737 Words  | 4 Pages

    The use of Alliteration, metaphors, Personifications and Similes elaborates on man’s alienation from nature and claiming that humanity is no longer susceptible to the influence of the environment. Alliteration is throughout most of the first half of the poem. In line two Wordsworth write “The world is too much with us” and in line 5 “bears her bosom” which was related back to how man are blind and don’t see the beauty of the world. Cleverly using metaphor to make sure his audience relate to what his presenting. For example in line 10 he writes “suckled in a creed outworn” in this passage creed is relating to a mother nursing her child. With also conjunction of personification and similes, William relating one thing to another but making sure that it impact the readers

    Read More

  • Comparision of Wordsworth and Blake's Poems

    1519 Words  | 4 Pages

    Moreover, searching for the different mechanics in each of these poems makes it easier for the reader to analysis and interpret them. To begin, in “The World is Too Much with Us” the way the punctuation is fit into the poem is different since there are many semicolons between each line and one period suggesting that the poem is actually one long sentence. Then I believe the speaker to be someone who acknowledges that he too has lost connection with nature since he’s been preoccupied with other things in the world. This is proven throughout the whole poem since he talks in first person using the word “I.” The tone of this poem is angry, frustrated, and dissatisfied because of how the world has changed. The rhyme scheme is also another appealing mechanic here too since Wordsworth only uses fou...

    Read More

  • And Then There Were Three

    2221 Words  | 5 Pages

    Wordsworth and Coleridge set out to conduct an experiment. Coleridge’s short ballads were radical because they were, in his own words, “directed to persons and characters supernatural or at least romantic; yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth.” Wordsworth’s mission was the opposite: “to give charm of novelty to things of every day” (cited by Rannie). Though Wordsworth’s 1798 Advertisement and Prefaces of 1800 and 1802, and Coleridge’s 1817 Biographia Literaria explain the experiment clearly and directly, their initial intention for publication was nothing like the volumes of poems that were eventually produced.

    Read More

  • Comparison Of Tintern Abbey And Preface To Lyrical Ballads

    747 Words  | 2 Pages

    During Wordsworth time as a poet he made it his mission to have poetry be read by not only the aristocrats but also now the common man something that has never been done. In both poems Wordsworth makes his poems relatable by incorporating themes that everyone can relate to even if they haven’t personally had that experience, although both poems do differ when it comes down to structure and form but also when trying to convey a message, these poems are important because these ideas have never been done before and now even the average Joe can finally participate in a conversation about poetry and this brings two world together.

    Read More

  • Re-Looking into the Romantic Skylark

    2038 Words  | 5 Pages

    In his 1924 essay, Arthur Lovejoy speaks about the discriminations of approaches within “romanticism” and prefers to use the term in plural. Two major romantic poets Wordsworth and Shelley wrote poems on the same subject, e.g., the flight of a skylark but based it on two different thought dynamics that offer individuality to their poems. This paper offers a comparative analysis of the two poems To a Skylark by Shelley and To the Skylark by Wordsworth in order to show the diversity and difference that “romanticism” offers.

    Read More

More about Immediate Feelings and Remembered Feelings Presented in “Surprised by Joy”

Open Document